We’re not always right.
And we’ll admit it went we’re wrong.
When making our predictions during the championship season, sometimes we can be accurate. Other times, we can be completely off base.
Like in our preview of Wednesday’s MIAA Division 1 Championships.
In the Team Outlook section of the capsule where we list the schools that we feel have a chance to battle for the coveted hardware, there was never a mention of Lexington. Not a single word, not a thing, nada.
Perhaps that omission created some billboard material.
The Minutemen were not only fighting for the team title throughout the five-hour meet, they flat-out won it in the end.
Lexington placed third or better in seven events, including victories in three of them, to earn a convincing 84.87-60.74 victory over second-place Newton North. Natick was third with 54 points.
“We knew that we had a shot,” said Lexington coach Rebecca Trachsel. “Our goal was to give everything we could to make an impact here and do exactly what we did today.”
On then boys’ side, Lowell earned a 69-54 decision over runner-up Newton North. Brockton and Lexington tied for third with 40 points each. Like the Lexington girls, Lowell had high placements in several events, highlighted by three victories for the day.
“The team came out today,” said Lowell coach Nick McArdle. “We have a lot of seniors. We have been focused on this meet since last year. We knew we could come out and run well. It was great to see.”
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Lexington’s outstanding freshman Amelia Whorton scored 16 points for the night, placing first in the mile with a PR of 4 minutes, 59.46 seconds and taking third in the 1,000-meter run with another best of 2:55.88.
The Minutemen were also victors in the 4x800m relay (9:30.06) and the two mile where freshmen Jane Conrad (11:18.17) and sophomore teammate Callie Glenn (11:21.71) produced a 1-2 finish.
Lowell won two of the three relays. The state-leading 4x800m quartet of Jovani Ubri, Raymond Dafe, Alex Rodgers and Abdul Jalloh took that event in 8:03.11.The foursome of Denzel Kisekka, Ethan Thevenin, Jalloh and Dafe moved to No. 1 in the rankings in the 4x400m with a winning time of 3:23.61. Lowell’s Khai Yin was second to Brockton’s Lucas Andrade’s record-breaking performance in the 55m hurdles with a time of 7.36. Andrade won the race in 7.31, breaking the previous state record shared by Jordany Voloquez from 2022 and Yin from the MVC League Championships just five days earlier.
Andrade wasn’t the only athlete to etch their name in the record books at Wednesday’s competition. In the girls’ 55m hurdles, Natick’s Emmanuella Edozien erased the 13-year-old state mark by former Brockton great Vanessa Clerveaux by one-hundredth of a second with winning time of 7.96. Edozien also claimed the long jump with a leap of 18-8.75.
Newton North’s Reese Connors ran the race of his life to become the first MA runner to dip under 34 seconds for the 300m. Connors blazed to a nation No. 15 of 33.94, breaking the 2018 record of 34.16 by Needham alum Davonte Burnett.
